


Honeymoon

by OurImpavidHeroine



Series: The Abdication of Hou-Ting LIV or: How Wu Learned to Stop Being Foolish and Love the Detective [5]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-16 18:34:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3498659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OurImpavidHeroine/pseuds/OurImpavidHeroine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako reports on his honeymoon. </p><p>Not officially, though, because he's on vacation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honeymoon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Beeht](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beeht/gifts), [Angelica Concepcion](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Angelica+Concepcion), [Keelan_666](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keelan_666/gifts).



> This is a little thank you to all of you who have found my series and who took the time to read through all 55 bazillion words of it, leave kudos, and comment! It means a great deal to me. This series is my first real foray into fanfic, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm glad you are as well. :)
> 
> A big special thanks to Keelan_666, Beeht and Angelica Concepcion for all of the lovely and on-going feedback that the three of you gave to me. I'm very grateful indeed!

It was a beautiful wedding. It was. Just our closest friends and family, a very simple and short ceremony, with Tenzin doing the honors. Airbenders before the genocide hadn't really gotten married - Jinora once told me that men and women not only lived in different dormitories, like they did on Air Temple Island, but had even lived in different temples altogether. (Glad I'm not an airbender is all I have to say to that.) However, they did have a kind of commitment ceremony, and that's what Tenzin performed. Beifong has the authority as Chief of Police to fill out actual marriage licenses and she had one with her and signed it with Bolin and Opal as our witnesses, which relieved me. Commitment ceremonies are all well and fine (and very nice, no really, I liked it a lot) but I like knowing there's a good solid piece of paper. Signed by official people. Officially. I didn't say anything, of course, but after we signed it (Wu signed with a huge flourish and an eyebrow wiggle at me) I felt better and Wu leaned over and whispered into my ear, "Now you can't run off on me."

Like I ever would.

After the ceremony we all went and had dinner in the main house on the island, and Naoki fell asleep in the middle of it. She just tipped face first right onto the table. Pema motioned me into one of their bedrooms and told me I could lay her down on the bed there. I wasn't very keen on it, but Pema pointed out it was just around the corner and if she woke up we'd hear her. I know, I know, I need to calm down, but I worry that she's still missing living with my aunt and uncle and Shu and that she might get scared with strange people or places. Wu says I am being silly and that she's fine. Her bedroom at home is very pretty - Wu really outdid himself, I guess my cousin told him that Naoki is crazy over butterflies, so it's decorated with those, although I really don't think she needs as many clothes as Wu has bought her but I'm not going to bring it up because if I do he'll sulk all day about it. She does look very cute, I have to admit. Well, anyhow, this is supposed to be about my honeymoon and not five pages about Naoki. Who I guess I can call my daughter, but it still feels strange to me. Not because she's strange! But because I don't know, being a father is a big deal and I don't want to fuck that up and also, she was just sort of dropped right into our laps before I had nine months to get used to the idea. I like having time to get used to things, unlike some other people I might mention.

Also in the strange category: I am now a _husband_. 

Huh.

I kind of feel sorry for Bolin, because Su Beifong was making some pointed comments about weddings and Opal's state of pregnancy (oh wait, I just asked Wu, he said a better word is gravidity, so okay, fine) ...some pointed comments about weddings and Opal's gravidity (?) but anyhow, you get the idea, Bolin knocked up Opal but they haven't gotten married yet even though everyone knows Bolin would marry Opal in a heartbeat, so I am thinking maybe she should be harassing her own daughter and not my brother. Wu told me I need to learn how to pick my battles and that I should back away slowly from that one and leave it alone. He's probably right. No, I know he's right.

Backing away slooooooooowly. Hands in the air. No opinions on any of it, no ma'am.

The evening was winding down and those of us heading back across the bay were getting ready to go. I was going to go fetch Naoki but Beifong already had her. The Chief is kind of grabby with her. I don't mind. Much. I'm kind of surprised, is all. Beifong never had any kids and I didn't even think she _liked_ kids, but now she shows up at our place for dinner a couple of times a week and has even taken Naoki to the park a few times. Wu says to stop being an ass, that maybe she might be a little lonely and might want some company, but I don't know. She must have other friends, right? We aren't very exciting, I never know what to talk to her about outside of work, but I guess it doesn't matter, Wu can talk enough for everyone and she spends her dinners insulting him and he just laughs in her face. Neither of them seems to mind this. In fact, they seem to sort of relish it. I guess I am going to just back away slowly from that one, too. In any case, Naoki really lights up whenever Beifong comes over, so that's a good thing, I think.

Sorry, I wasn't supposed to be talking about the baby. Okay, anyhow, back to the story.

So Beifong had Naoki and when we got back to the mainland she took her and went to get into Asami's car and I was like, excuse the fuck out of me, where do you think you are going with my baby? and it turned out that Wu had made plans for our honeymoon. Surprise! So Asami and Korra were going to be dropping the Chief and Naoki off at home and LoLo (that's the firebender that Firelord Izumi sent to help out my aunt and uncle with Naoki when she started bending and I was under the impression he was just going to be staying with us in Republic City for a week or so but now I guess he's staying for good, please don't ask me, I never know how any of these things happen, how did Qi come to live with us? How did we move into Beifong's mother's house? I don't know, Wu just does things and expects me to keep up) anyhow LoLo was going to be watching Naoki while we were gone. Beifong promised to check in every day. I don't know, maybe we should have brought her along (by her I mean Naoki, not Beifong!!!) but I guess having a three year old on your honeymoon might kind of kill the mood.

Letting it go. Letting it go. Naoki will be fine. LoLo and the Chief will take care of her. She will be fine.

Qi drove us to the airfield and Wu's private airship was there (if I ever want to really freak myself out I think to myself, I used to eat food out of dumpsters and now I am the ~~boyfriend~~ husband of someone who owns a private airship, I keep waiting for someone to wake me up or something) and we went aboard and I pointed out that I had not packed a bag since I had been unaware that morning I was even getting married no less going on a honeymoon and Wu just kissed me and said, "Well, I packed for you."

I should really get mad at him more often for this kind of thing, but he looks up at me with those big green eyes, and he laughs in that way he does, and I just can't be mad at him. I just can't. He's so happy whenever he thinks he can do something nice for someone. Once we were at the zoo, back in the days when I was his bodyguard, the man always wanted to go and visit the damn badgermoles and it was free admission day, so there were all these street kids there, and damn me if he didn't buy them all ice cream and lead them all in singing a chorus of some song he liked from the radio while the badgermoles danced along. Those damn street rats, all gobbling down ice cream, singing so loudly that we were getting stared at from all over the zoo. How can you not fall in love someone who does that?

Hint: you can keep your arms firmly crossed across your chest to keep yourself from touching him back every time he touches you and you can also glare at him and refuse to crack a smile and sigh a lot so that he won't guess that what you really want to do is kiss the smudge of ice cream right off of his chin.

I was such a prick. Anyhow. I'd kiss the ice cream off if it were today, okay?

I asked him where we were going but of course he refused to tell me.

I reminded him he wasn't a king any longer and no one could throw me in prison for beating it out of him. Then I chased him through the airship. Because he's fun to chase, he giggles and you know, he's actually pretty damn quick. You wouldn't think it to look at him but he's so damn tiny he can just squeeze through places I could never hope to get my shoulders through. He's a challenge to catch, I'm not kidding! Also, the actual catching him always leads to some excellent sex, so I'm up for that part too. (Oh, I just got it, _up_ for that part. Hah!)

It wasn't my first time having sex on an airship but it was my first time with him on an airship and I have no complaints. (Oh, Wu wants to know who else I had sex with on an airship and uh, that would be Asami, sorry, for awhile there we kind of did it on every available surface - were we broken up? yes no maybe? - but we're past that now. Now he's laughing at me and saying things like, "But did you do it in a car? You did! What about on a kitchen table? Oh, I guess that's a given, huh? Oh oh oh, what about in Tenzin's house? YOU DID! YOU DEFILED AIR TEMPLE ISLAND!" and now he's on the floor laughing at me. Oh, he's never going to let me live that one down. Ever. Ever ever ever. Thirty years from now, we'll go to Air Temple Island and he'll lean in very close to me and whisper, "Defiiiiiiiiiiiiled," and start laughing his ass off. It _will_ happen. I just know it.)

Now I am in trouble for writing that I had no complaints about the sex and Wu, stop reading this over my shoulder! Write your own damn thing about it, then!

_The sex with Wu was incandescent; unforgettable, awe-inspiring, the kind of sex that transcends mind and body, the kind of sex that ruins you for anyone else ever again._

FYI: I did not write that.

ANYHOW! 

When we woke up in the morning we were still traveling, so we had some breakfast and then some more sex (it's my honeymoon, I can fuck my way through it if I want to) and then we started to land. Wu told me we were going to be staying at a resort on Ember Island, which is this very swanky place in the Fire Nation. There was a taxi waiting, and it took us to where we were staying, which wasn't as it happens, a hotel. Well, it was and it wasn't. There is a hotel itself but we had our own little house - no wait, bungalow - that was actually built out over the water, the whole floor was glass! To get to it you had to walk up from the beach over this little bridge over the water, it was very private and I liked that. One whole wall opened out to the ocean, there were chairs there and a big hammock for two that swung out over the water. There was a ladder that led into the ocean if you wanted to go swimming. It was really really nice. And so warm. I just can't get over how warm it is here. I love it.

There were people there taking our bags (I got familiar with that kind of thing when I lived with Wu at the Four Elements so at least I didn't look like a complete hick) and when we got to the room there was lunch waiting for us and it was damn good. There were also these little drinks that were very sweet and sort of fruity with little paper umbrellas in them. Wu got very excited about the paper umbrellas and made me save mine and give them to him. The drink was very good, too, normally I don't really do the whole mixed drink thing, but whatever was in them, they were like drinking candy with a kick. I thought I might like another one, so Wu showed me that there was a phone there and he called and told them, more drinks! And a few minutes later, up trots a guy with more drinks. 

I could get used to that, let me tell you.

Well, hey, I hadn't ever done it in a hammock, so there's a first just for Wu! Helpful hint: don't get too athletic in the hammock or else someone is going to end up in the ocean. Just so you know. I think the hammocks were more for the whole cuddling/napping thing. Thankfully I had already polished off most of my second drink before we went for our little unexpected swim, but no worries, we just called for more. Drinks, that is. In fact we just kept calling for more. And more. 

Wu got completely trashed. Gone. Totally gone. He was laying in the middle of the glass floor, trying to catch the fish swimming below us, laughing his ass off. 

I got fairly tipsy myself, which is why I got the bright idea that I'd go and swim beneath the glass floor and wave up at him. Spirits. I'm lucky I didn't drown myself.

The next morning, oh, Vaatu's left nut, the next morning was kind of ugly. Well. Anyhow. Moving along, I know nobody wants to read about that.

After a while, when we could actually do more than lay in bed wishing for death, we went for a really nice stroll down the beach. It's very pretty here, all ocean and sand and palm trees. It wasn't very crowded where we were, but I suspect that's because we were on private resort property, and as I said, it was all kinds of swanky. We did go to the hotel itself to have something to eat, they have a very nice restaurant there. You can get everything delivered to your room, of course, but we ate there, and Wu got to do people watching, which he loves to do. Of course it's all authentic Fire Nation food here, my mouth was on fire which is exactly how I want it. We had more of those fruity candy drinks (again, Wu made me save the umbrellas) and took one to go. (We were pacing ourselves a little better with them that second day. They tasted so good that I didn't realize until too late what kind of a kick they had!)

We just strolled around the area and stopped off in another restaurant for dinner where Wu got all ambitious and had Smoked Sea Slug. Um. No. No. Not going to do it. He said it was good, but I stuck with Komodo Chicken. We might have had a few more of those fruity candy drinks. Oh! And these amazing fruit tarts for dessert. I ate all of mine and most of Wu's. I'm getting more of those before we leave. They had this cream stuff in them, I have got to find out if we can get them back home.

There is this theater there - like with plays, not movers - that has been around for over a hundred years, and we thought, what the hell, let's go catch a show, and it was terrible, no I mean, these people just sucked but it didn't matter because Wu spent the entire thing saying the absolute rudest snarkiest horrible things ever about it into my ear and I refused to laugh at him, so he just kept turning it up, and finally he said something beyond nasty and I broke and started laughing during this part where the heroine was having some tragic scene about her lover being lost at sea, so all of these people turned to glare at me and shush me and and Wu turned and glared at me with total outrage on his face too, like it wasn't him that had made me laugh in the first place! The little shit! Which only made me laugh harder.

I really do love him, even if his main goal in life is to get me kicked out of the theater! Because they kicked us out! 

We will never be welcome again at the Ember Island Theater. I piggybacked Wu most of the way back to our bungalow and he shook his fist at the sky and shouted how he'd buy the entire island and we'd see who was kicked out of what, but he was laughing so hard he could hardly get the words out.

I'd say no more fruity drinks with umbrellas for Wu but oh, I think we all know that wasn't going to happen.

Now here's something I didn't know before we got here: Wu doesn't know how to swim! He never learned, he wasn't allowed in the pool at the palace in Ba Sing Se when his father was still alive, and once his father died it was drained and that was it. So that night after we got back to the bungalow I took him into the ocean and let him hold on to me and floated him around. I think he swallowed half the ocean, I kept telling him to focus on floating and breathing instead of talking, but that's like asking the sun not to rise. He got very good at blowing bubbles with his face into the water, though.

We got smart that time, though, and just cuddled in the hammock. I made it swing with my foot, and after a time he got quiet, and I realized he had fallen asleep on me. Here's a true fact: I've traveled all over the world, and I've seen a lot of beautiful things. The spirit world, the Northern Air Temple before it was destroyed, Zaofu, all kinds of places that, let's be honest, most people will never see. I've been a very lucky man, and I know it. I do know it. But at the risk of sounding really mushy, I have to tell you, laying there in that hammock, half suspended above the water, watching the moon ripple over the ocean, with Wu on me? It was so warm, even at night, and all I could hear was the sound of the ocean and his breathing. It was beautiful. Wu reads me his romances sometimes and they always have this phrase that sticks out to me, that they never wanted the moment to end. Well, I never wanted that moment to end. At some point I must have fallen asleep as well because when I woke up the next morning we were both still laying there. It was nice. Really nice. Do it for the rest of my life nice.

Wu had them deliver more of those fruit tarts for breakfast. I tried to argue that dessert is not a breakfast food but I ate three of them so I guess I wasn't even convincing myself of that argument.

So they have this surfing thing you can do on boards in the water, and I've always wanted to give it a try. Which I obviously must have mentioned at some point, because Wu remembered and signed me up for lessons. So I got a rental board and an instructor and out into the water we went. I spent about half the day in the water instead of on top of it, but after awhile I got the hang of it - probably would have sooner if I were a waterbender, but the instructor was a firebender himself and showed me how to balance with some flame jets. I felt bad about abandoning Wu on the beach but he settled himself in a chair with a huge umbrella and a little bag with a romance, some sun lotion and sunglasses and after awhile I saw he was surrounded by an entire entourage of women. Turns out he was reading the romance aloud to them. Complete with fruity drinks. I came out of the water for a bit of a rest and to find something to eat, and walked up there, and there he was smiling up at me, and he said, "Ladies! This is my husband, Mako!" and suddenly I felt like I was surrounded by dolphin piranha, those women were all over me. Wu was sitting there, laughing at me over his sunglasses. And let me tell you something, on Ember Island they don't even bother with the kind of bathing suits they wear in Republic City, the men here are all bare-chested and so you know the old saying, when in Ba Sing Se do as they do, so I didn't bother with my singlet and just had the shorts on, and Wu leaned forward and said to the woman next to him, "Darling, it's such a pity, I know, if only he liked women, I keep telling him, broaden your horizons, but he just won't do it! Maybe one of you could change his mind!" And then he batted his eyelashes at me, the little shit! Now I will be fending off horny women for the rest of this entire trip!

I WILL KILL HIM.

I said something stupid about going to get some lunch and then stalked off, and as I was walking away, I heard one of the women say, "Oh, but you have to tell us, what about those dreadful scars!" because of course I was in the water so I didn't have my glove on or anything and then Wu said, loud enough so he knew I'd hear him, "It was a sand shark! Hand to Raava! He saved an entire tribe of sandbenders!" 

Saved an entire tribe of sandbenders! Wu!

Well, anyhow, by the time the day was winding down I had gotten the surfing thing down pretty well. It's a lot of fun, actually. Wu had given up and gone back to our bungalow, and so I paddled the board over and climbed up the ladder with it. Now that's what I call convenient! I leaned it up against the side of the veranda and stared at him. He was on the bed reading, trying to pretend he hadn't noticed me, but oh, he had. I could tell.

He looked at me over the book, eyes all big and innocent. "Had a nice day, lover?"

I'll give you a nice day! I grabbed him, tossed the book to the side, and then threw him off the side of the veranda into the water. He went in with a screech. I grabbed the board and tossed it in as well (made sure it wasn't going to hit him, goes without saying, I hope) and then dove in after it. I hauled him in and sat him on the board and sat behind him, and started to paddle us forward.

"You're a little shit, you know that?"

He just laughed and leaned back against me.

"Guess if I am not going to have women grabbing my ass now?"

He just kept laughing. We hit a few swells and that got a gasp out of him, and he clutched the board tight. No more laughing.

"I'm not going to let you fall off," I said, and put my arms around him. "You cold?"

"No," he said. "Oh Mako, look at all the lights on the shore! They're so pretty."

He was prettier, and he's what I was looking at.

"Thank you," I said. "For all of this. The wedding. This trip. All of it."

He grinned up at me. "Nuo made all of the arrangements. For the honeymoon, I mean. She promised me that if I ever got you to marry me she'd set it all up for us no matter where she was or what she was doing. I guess I can let Wing have her for good now."

"I hope Wing knows he got a good thing with her."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he does."

We were quiet then, just floating in the swells, watching the lights on the shore, watching the moon rise. He was only in shorts as well, and I couldn't get enough of his skin on me. I love his skin; he's soft, and always smells so good. 

I don't know. I don't know why he can do things that no one else in the world can get away with. If someone else had pulled that crack on me with all those women on the beach, or had gotten me kicked out of a theater, I'd be mad. Really angry, you know? I hate feeling like people are making fun of me or taking advantage of me somehow. But I never feel like he's doing that. He's laughing _with_ me, not _at_ me. He teases me terribly! But it doesn't hurt my feelings, because he always lets me in on the joke. I get too serious, I know, and I don't relax very well. I know I'm a bossy old woman, believe me, I know. But he just doesn't seem to care. I fuss after him and he just smiles at me. He never argues with me over it or gets his shorts in a twist. Granted, most of the time he just does whatever he wants anyway! But for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to bother him when I fuss at him. He does not give two shits rubbed together if I am grouchy at him. "Mako, don't be so grouchy!" he says to me, and gives me that look, that look he does with the big eyes and that smile and nine times out of ten, the grouchy just up and disappears. I can't explain it.

I don't get it. I wouldn't want to go out with me. I'm rude and bad-tempered and I'm always opening my mouth and inserting my foot right inside. I'd drive myself insane if I was with myself. Well, that sounds weird, but you know what I mean.

It's not that we never fight or anything, because of course we do. Sometimes he can be really condescending and sometimes I can really stomp all over his feelings and it's not like we don't have our moments. We do. But it's different with him, even when we're really going at it.

I always know where I stand with him, I guess that's what it is for me. I never have to guess or figure it out for myself. Which is good, because as has been demonstrated on many many occasions, I am not any good at that at all. Let me repeat: _not at all_. But Wu just lays it out for me. If he's mad, he tells me. If he's sad, he tells me. If I hurt his feelings, he tells me. If I please him, he tells me that, too. I'm not really used to that kind of honesty. To say the least. But he just tells me! And little by little, I let myself believe that with Wu, I don't have to be worried about the other shoe dropping, because he just ups and drops both shoes at the same time. There are never any hidden shoes. And that actually allows me to relax more with him than with anybody else but Bolin.

And maybe other people get annoyed with all of his chatter, but I don't mind it. In fact, I like his chatter. I missed his chatter when he was gone. I guess I am used to it with Bolin and all, but Wu actually very rarely talks nonsense, unlike Bolin half the time. (Sorry, Bolin.) I mean, he jokes around with me, teases me - he's always saying this outrageous shit trying to get a rise out of me, and it's a game, you know? He gets outrageous and I refuse to react and then we escalate. It's this thing we do. But we both know it's a game. (We also know it's a game Wu is always going to win, let's face it, because his ability to be outrageous goes way past my ability not to get outraged.) But the thing is, Wu is really smart. Smarter than most people understand, I think. He knows so much, I learn something new every time he chats at me. But he does it in such a way that he never makes me feel stupid, never throws into my face my own lack of formal education. 

He looked so good sitting there in front of me, felt so good, I seriously debated taking a big old chomp out of his earlobe because that's the single one thing I can do to him that gets to him no matter what, he has zero defenses, but if making out in a hammock is a bad idea then making out on a surfboard is an even worse one and we'd probably end up drowned. But I guess I was being more obvious than I thought because he laughed suddenly and told me that I'd better get us back before we knocked each other off the surfboard. So then I had to show off a little and I sent us skipping fast back across the water with my jets, and he very nicely grabbed on to me (which is what I was hoping for) and we got back to our bungalow in no time at all. And then I deployed Operation Earlobe Bite, oh yes I did.

Now here's a thing you probably don't know. Well, or least I didn't know. Those romances that Wu likes to read are unbelievably smutty. Before I started working for Wu I had never read one, I thought they were just full of ladies in fancy robes laying about being tragic or poetic or whatever and according to Wu, some of them are like that. I would basically rather have my head cut off than read one of those. But the ones that he likes to read are _completely_ different. He had one when we were living for that time with my family at Asami's place about this waterbender pirate and this kidnapped Fire Nation prince and let me tell you something, the things those two men got up to in that book made me blush and it's not like I wasn't making my way through half the Triple Threat Triad by the time I was fourteen or so. He read it and gave it to my cousin Meng-Meng on the sly (my aunt would have had the vapors if she knew Meng-Meng was reading that kind of thing) and then I stole it from Meng-Meng to see what all the fuss was about and had a few sleepless nights reading it.

Wu may not have a lot of practical experience (none outside of me) but he makes up for it in imagination. Damn. Back when he was still in Ba Sing Se he managed to drag out of me that I'd had this thing with one of the other numbers runners for the Triple Threats, this guy was a year or two older than me, but even after I left the Triads to start the whole pro-bending thing we'd hook up. Let me make it clear - hook ups were all that was going on, it was not like I was ever going to bring him anywhere near where Bolin and I were sleeping (I kept Bolin out of all of it as best I could, I still don't think he knows most of what I was doing for the Triads, and I'd like to keep it that way) and he didn't want anyone to know about us either since I wasn't exactly on the Triple Threat's guest list after Bolin and I walked out so we were not, as they say, getting a room. We hooked up wherever, in the back of alleys or restaurant toilets or hidden away in the park. Look, it wasn't all that nice, okay? But it was what it was. I was young and stupid and horny. At least I wasn't cheating on anyone at that point, so give me a little credit.

So anyhow, not long after Wu had gotten back for good to Republic City we met Korra and Asami at Kwong's Cuisine for dinner and we got there a little early (for once, and only because I lied about what time the reservation was) and were waiting and then he announced he needed to pee and said he didn't want to go alone, kidnapping flashbacks and all (I still feel so damn bad about that whole thing), so I followed him in there and before I knew what the hell was going on he got me into one of the stalls and next thing I know he was on his knees with my zipper down and I mean, come ON, this was Kwong's, the nicest restaurant in town, not some cut-rate noodle joint in the bad part of town and then someone else walked in so I was desperately trying to be as silent as possible (you try it, I dare you) and I thought he'd quit because someone else was there, but no, no, not my Wu, he just looked up at me with that little grin of his and spirits, what was I supposed to do? Bite down on my glove and hope no one would hear me. Afterwards he just walked on out, cool as you please, and I was still in there, trying to figure out how I was actually supposed to find my legs in order to walk out of there myself and by the time I made it back to the table he had already ordered for both of us and was chatting up Korra and Asami like nothing had happened. I sat down and I still wasn't able to string two words together, and naturally Korra started sniping at me about my lack of conversation and all Wu did was unfold his napkin, very slowly, watching me the whole time, and pat very delicately at the corners of his mouth with it before putting it in his lap.

MAKO OUT.

Do you see what I have to deal with here? How can I ever hope to win when he does this kind of thing? The earlobe bite is my only real defense.

Don't get me wrong, he wouldn't do this to me at work or anything. He's met most of my co-workers and while he's always charming, it's just his normal sort of Wu-charming. He's never teased me at work. Once when we were at the mall I caught some Agni Kai kids coming out of one of the jewelry shops and told him to stay put and went after them. He stayed put. Never once tried to argue, or ask me what was going on or anything like that, he just stayed right where I told him to stay - we had the baby with us, too - and he kept quiet and out of the way until I had rounded the Agni Kais up and called in for a patrol car.  When I came back he and Naoki were sitting exactly where I had told him to sit, waiting patiently for me. He knows I take my job seriously, he never fucks around with my work. 

Sand shark, though. I still can't believe he told those women my lightning scars came from a fucking sand shark. 

Next day I did more surfing and he left me to it to go to the spa, so we were both happy. I was actually getting a little brown out there. Better at the surfing, too, I was spending more time on the board instead of off of it. We did our own thing and then met for dinner. Which is nice, you know? It's not that I don't love him and want to spend time with him but I really just don't enjoy browsing through fashion magazines while waiting for him at the spa and he's gone to pro-bending matches with me but he's clearly bored out of his mind. (He says if I'm not playing he sees no point.) We have our own things we like to do. However, I will say that going out to clubs with him is a lot more fun when I can do it as his ~~boyfriend~~ husband instead of his bodyguard, so that night we went to a nightclub there on the island. The music was good, there were plenty of drinks, and I have to tell you, the man can dance. We did have a small incident where one of the women from our hotel grabbed my ass through the very thin summer trousers I was wearing and surprised the hell of me, spirits, I damn near jumped over the bar and nearly shot flame at her head which would have spoiled the evening but Wu leapt right in there and told her this absolute bullshit story about (imaginary) scars on my ass from the sand shark and you have to understand, he does it with such a straight face that people believe whatever he tells them! He is such a filthy liar! By the end of the whole thing we were surrounded by women all clucking at me with pity and giving me all these comforting pats and dabbing at their eyes and Wu, that little fucker, he's just dabbing at his eyes along with them before telling them that my own personal waterbender healer prescribed dancing as a means of keeping my ass scars supple and then he took me back out on the floor. And they believed him! Every word!

I can never come back to this island ever again. He has no shame! NO SHAME AT ALL.

Spirits, I love him so much. Ass scars! Except that's not what he said, of course, he said _the denticulated indentations on his derriere_ , and I know none of those women knew what those words meant, I sure as hell didn't know, but then he did this sort of hand gesture of the sand shark's teeth biting my ass and those women's mouths just dropped open in shock and so did mine, believe you me. And you know, if I tried to tell anyone the story I wouldn't make it sound funny at all, I can never make stories sound funny, people just stare at me like, Mako, what the fuck is wrong with you, ass scars indeed! but Wu, the man has a gift.

I can't stop laughing about it. You had to be there, I guess, with all of these tipsy women in their resortwear, staring at my ass, imagining a sand shark taking a bite. I mean, I'm about the size of a single sand shark tooth myself. Those things are huge. My ass is not big enough to survive a sand shark bite, thanks very much. Oh what did I tell you, I can't tell the joke right.

The next afternoon after lunch we went for a walk in the other direction past the arcade area and it was full of teenagers and I was going to just walk on by, at least I've gotten past my teen years, right? but no, Wu was not having any of that, he jumped up and down like he does and dashed inside and begged me to win him a stuffed dragon so we could take it home to the baby - "Oh, Mako! The Butterfly needs her very own dragon!" - so guess what I ended up doing for a half hour? Total scam that game, but he wanted the dragon. So he got his damn dragon. Mako of Republic City: firebender, crime stopper, plush toy winner. A man for all seasons.

He carried it around with him, too, it was practically bigger than he was. Wu: former king, filthy liar, plush toy carrier. Mine.

This is all we did for two weeks. Surfed and read and ate and danced and drank and walked and yeah, we spent a lot of time in bed. Only one person recognized him there - no one recognized me at all - and when the woman asked him if he was Hou-Ting he laid out some story about being an actor who was going to be playing the role of Hou-Ting in a mover and that he was doing research for the role and for her to please keep it hush hush and he promised her tickets to the opening night. I had to pretend to have a huge coughing fit at that one in order not to start laughing all over the table and he kept slamming me on the back and explaining to the woman that I was the director of the mover and couldn't handle the spicy food. Which only made it worse.

We brought a camera and took some pictures, too. Neither one of us is very good at it, so who knows what they will look like, I know for a fact that my thumb is in several of them, because Wu kept yelling, "THUMB!" Whoops.

At one point he dragged me into the shops to buy presents for everyone, and I found a very pretty hair comb that I thought Asami would like - it had shells on it - but I was a little worried about buying it, because, you know, ex-girlfriend thing, kind of touchy, but he saw it and immediately said, "Oh, for Asami? It's beautiful, I bet she'll love it!" and that was that. Korra and Bolin got t-shirts that said, "My friends/My brother went to Ember Island and all I got was this stupid t-shirt" which they will both love, let's be honest here and Wing Beifong got an illustrated book all about the different kinds of plants and flowers on the island (Wu says he likes that kind of thing, who knew?) and Opal got a book about the history of the island itself (it looked so interesting that I got a copy for myself as well) and Huan got this huge shell the size of my head that you can blow into to make noise (Wu was especially delighted with this one) and other things for other people and we found these wooden puzzle blocks and sticks that were hand-carved for Naoki. You can build things with them and make patterns if you put them together the right way. They were very clever, Wu and I ended up spending a half hour in the shop playing with them ourselves. Wu found this pen that has a man in the flowered shorts they wear here, and when you turn the pen upside down the shorts slide off and there he is, in his altogether, and he bought that for Beifong, and one just like it but with a woman on it for Yumi. I told him there was no way Beifong would ever use that pen but he just smiled and said, "We'll see" and LoLo got spices (which is what he asked for, he gave Wu a list) and Qi got a sea glass bracelet and we're going to fill half that damn airship with presents by the time we're done.

We went into a bakery that sells those fruit tarts, and Wu struck up a conversation with the woman there, and went on and on about the tarts (I was too busy eating them to go on about them) and before he left he had the name and address of the woman's cousin who owns a bakery in Republic City whom she assures us makes tarts every bit as good as hers. Well, that was enough of a present for me.

But then we went into a shop that sold those surfboards and Wu prodded me into a conversation about them with the owner and by the time we left I had my own board. I started to tell him that it was too much, but he just kissed me right there in the middle of the street and refused to listen to me. He said I can surf in the little tiny koi pond we have in the backyard at home. He's ridiculous. But maybe I can see about taking it down to the coast south of the city, I know there are some people who surf down there. 

The day before we left he laid out a nice suit for both of us and we went to visit Lord Zuko at his home there. Wu said it would be the height of rudeness for two abdicated Kings not to meet. I'll take his word on that. We came into the house (Wu had sent a note the moment we got to the island, protocol thing, I guess, in any case, we were expected) and Lord Zuko stood up very slowly - he's very frail, he's in his nineties, for the love of Raava - and he bowed at me and told me he was honoring me for my sacrifice in taking down the Colossus. I'm not ashamed to say that I was in tears over that. It's not that I advertise it or anything, but generating lightning into that thing is not really something that your average firebender could do. I'll probably never bend like that again in my life. Lord Zuko understood, though. And I saw the way Wu was looking at me - like I was the bravest person he knew - when Lord Zuko bowed and that got to me, too. And then Lord Zuko made a joke about people finding lightning scars pretty sexy, and I was too shocked to answer - he's the Firelord! I didn't think they made jokes like that! - but Wu just laughed and laughed and told him that it was half the reason he married me. And then we sat down and had tea and Lord Zuko had some story about Wu's great-aunt actually having the nerve to ask him about getting her a dragon egg to eat!!! and yes, that's right, there I was, having tea with Lord Zuko and the former Earth Monarch while they gossiped about Wu's great-grandfather and his weird relationship with his pet bear. My life, sometimes. My life.

We had our last dinner in one of the restaurants that are right on the beach and out of nowhere Wu produced all of the umbrellas from the drinks we'd had - there were a lot of umbrellas, a whole lot - and he had strung them together and put them on us as hats and asked someone at one of the other tables to take a photo, and we were laughing - and if anyone for the rest of my life ever questions whether or not I really love this man I would like to point out that not only did I let him put a hat made of tiny umbrellas on my head but I let him get photographic evidence of it. Then he said we were saving them to take home to hang up in the baby's bedroom. 

I went for one last surf in the moonlight, and he sat on the beach and watched me - I kept my hand lit up so he could see me - and after I came back in he asked if we could sleep in the hammock instead of the bed again, and yes. Yes we could.

I really missed the baby and I couldn't wait to see her, but there was a part of me that just wanted to stay right there. Never go back. I told him that, and he smiled up at me and said, "Well, keep it in mind for retirement someday."

I can do that. I can. I would like to think of us, fifty years from now, old men, sitting here where it's warm, eating those fruit tarts while Wu tells all of the resort ladies about my ass scars.

We didn't get very much sleep that last night. Even if we were in the hammock.

We left very early in the morning, and we were both a little bit sad and tired and grouchy heading home. Wu had a headache and went to nap for awhile and I wandered around the airship and thought about going back to work, which was too damn depressing, I mean, I do like my job and all, but it's not like it's the most uplifting work in the world, you know? Sometimes my job is really hard. So I gave up thinking about that and went in and took a really long nap with Wu instead, which was a much better use of my time.

Qi was there when we landed and drove us home. Qi came inside with us, and LoLo had dinner waiting and Beifong was there, which surprised me a little, but Wu didn't seem surprised at all. He gave Qi the bracelet - Qi actually smiled, which pretty much never happens - and Qi put it on right away. LoLo deemed the spices acceptable. (Which means I am going to get some good meals in the near future!) Wu gave Beifong the pen and she stared at it and then turned it upside down and her eyebrows went up as she watched the shorts slide down and then she just stared at Wu, and he said, "For filling out reports, naturally," and then she started laughing - I mean _really_ laughing - and told Wu she would never use another pen for her reports again. I do not understand the relationship between Beifong and Wu. _At all._

I couldn't wait to see the baby, though, so I asked LoLo if he could hold dinner for a few, and he said of course, and Wu and I went up to her room. She was sound asleep in her little bed, all her hair mashed up to one side, covers kicked every which way, she's a restless sleeper, that Butterfly, and I straightened up her covers and smoothed her hair back and kissed her, and she opened her eyes and whispered, "Daddy," and then her eyes slid shut again, and maybe I got a little choked up, but you know, I missed her. Wu left her plush dragon next to her bed. It's bigger than she is. She'll be able to ride it!

We went downstairs and had dinner with Beifong and LoLo and Qi and told them all about the trip and Wu promised to get the pictures developed as soon as possible, and Beifong told me to take the next day off and then come in the day after. I tried to tell her that I could be there the next day but all she said was, "Play with your kid for a day, Mako, she missed you," and that was the end of that. Eventually she went home and Qi went back to the rooms above the garage and LoLo waved me away when I tried to help clean up. I started to unpack our bags but Wu told me to stop and come to bed, so I did. I'll unpack them in the morning. And people say I'm rigid. That will show them.

The next morning I woke up with a husband taking over far more than his half of the bed and a child's foot up my nose (the other half of her was flopped across Wu and she was whispering, "Wake up, Papa," into his ear while he mumbled, "No, don' like spider wasps,") and I hauled her off of her father and removed hands and feet from places where they were not welcome and settled her back down in between us and told her to go back to sleep. She didn't, of course, but she never does.

It's good to be home.


End file.
